First time reloading 308, compressed loads

No one has said anything about tapping the case a bit to get the powder stettled a bit. If you do that you will find that you have a bunch more room in the case. This works on any of the stick powders it let's the powder grains lay together with less space between them. I am going to get into trouble here but will say it anyhow. I have only used Lee neck size dies once and I think the are an waste of money. Same kind of trouble as you had. A friend told me to resize the neck four times with them turning the case a bit each time so they would have enough neck tension to hold the bullets. Never had to do that with any other brand of dies. Perhaps I was not using them correctly but I read and reread there Instructions. I have used one of there full length resize die sets and it worked the way they should. The three older loading manuals I have close by all show load maximums above your intended maximum you still have to be careful but your intended loads look to be safe. As others have said a 99 is not a gun to over pressure but I don't think that a person should over pressure any gun that being said bolt and falling blocks generally have a bigger safety factor.If you look at the picture that was posted above I would not want the primers to look more flatten out than the one in the middle the one on the right is way over pressure. No need to run out and buy a different box of bullet either try the ones you have and have a bit of fun and see what happens your gun may love them. That is some of the joy that comes from reloading is you can try different things. It is good advice to read a few reloading manuals you may have already keep in mind that The info in those are written by companies that have something to lose if what they have written is incorrect so it is better info than an internet forum.
 
As a rookie, give yourself some margin - say a couple of grains below max, and stay below that. A 99 isn't an accuracy gun, so ladder tests will not likely bear fruit. Your rifle will naturally "tune" to a bullet weight, not likely at 110 grains. A good load usually shows promise right out of the gate. If you can find a buddy that shoots 308, split a couple of boxes of 150 and 165 gr flat base bullets. As above, tapping the case will settle the powder substantially.
 
Compressed loads are nothing to worry about. They'll start long before you get anywhere near max too. Hodgdon shows 45.0 as the Start load. 50.0 as max. (Not unusual for different manuals to have slightly different data.) I'd suspect your 45.7 being compressed isn't odd at all.
110's are .30 Carbine bullets. Usually. The .308 loves 165's and IMR4064 will give more consistent accuracy without excessive felt recoil.
 
Thanks guys...I loaded up 9 rounds starting at 44.1 and going up to 47.3. Is that enough of a safety margin? My hornady manual lists 48.0grs as the max. Sounds like I need to pick up some 150 or 165gr projectiles.
 
Start shooting the loads with the least powder and look at the primers then look at the primers as you shoot each shell with more powder and watch for pressure signs. If there are none you can try the next hotter loading.
 
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